In Between the Sunsets
by Lani's Tamer-chi
Summary: Continued from I love Yuki SohMA's original story! For her whole life, Sam's only friends have been Tucker and Valerie. Their lives are changed forever when the cute but mysterious Danny Fenton moves into town. Amity Park will never be the same.
1. First Meetings

Hi! Glad to see you here at the In Between the Sunsets studio. Thanks for joining us today.

If you're here because you liked _I love Yuki SohMA_'s story, I've got great news for you! I'm continuing this story for her. I loved it too, and couldn't bear to see it die. So I'm neglecting BTL for a little while longer.

Here's how this is gonna work. I'll be copy & pasting the original chapter (including A/Ns) of IBTS onto MS Word, doing a bit of editing, and then posting on FFN. Why yes, I do enjoy using abbreviations. How'd you guess? I've also italicized the original A/Ns, so hopefully it'll be easier to tell who wrote which A/N.

After chapter five, I'll be following some guidelines she gave me, so she get plot credit, but I'll be doing the writing. Sound good? Great! Now let's get this show on the road!

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_**I AM SO SORRY! I CANT GET THIS TO WORK AT THE MOMENT SO IF ANYTHING SEEMS OFF, JUST IGNORE IT!**_

_This is my first story, so please R&R!_

_I __**don't **__own __**DP! **__*EVIL LAUGHTER!* But if I did! . . . __**BWAHAHAHA BWAHAHAHA!**_

_On with the story . . ._

_Chapter 1 Introduction: First Meetings_

**~Sam's POV~**

I don't know how long I stood in the mirror looking at myself, but it sure felt like a long time. I sighed and walked to my bed. "Another horrible day of school. I really don't wanna go." I glanced at the clock "but if I don't leave soon I'll be late!" I grabbed my backpack, ran down the stairs, and passed my mom. "Have a good da-" I slammed the door in her face. _"I don't have any time for her gushy goodbyes. I need to go,"_ I thought to myself.

As I walked through the front doors of the school, Valerie ran up behind me. "Hey Sammie!"

_Ugh!_ "Don't call me that, Valerie!"

My friend sighed. "There is a new boy in school, and he's _so_ hot, and he's _already_ starting to be friends with Tucker! This could be your big chance!" She smiled and elbowed me in the arm.

"_Ow!_ That hurt, you know!" I gave her a dirty look.

"Sorry Sam, but he's probably the_ hottest_ guy you'll _ever_ meet. His name is Danny," she told me. I couldn't believe it. Valerie was trying to hook me up with someone she'd never met before.

"How do you know?"

Her face turned as red as it could get, and she quickly muttered, "I might have kinda followed him yesterday."

My eyes widened., "Valerie! Did you ser-"

I'd been so focused on this that I missed seeing something directly in front of me – something _very_ hard, and slightly painful. I looked up to see a boy with black hair. I could swear I'd saw his eyes flash green for a moment, I must be seeing stuff. A second glance proved them to be icy-blue.

He coughed a little, probably from the force of my head accidently ramming into his chest. "Hey, you must be Sam. I'm Danny, Danny Fenton."

_That was the end of this round, stick around for more ;)  
I don't mean to be mean, but I'm not gonna be one of those pushy people who say, "I won't put up the next chapter until I get 3 reviews, though I would prefer it, thanks! Please R&R!_

_~ Fire Phee_

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Well, that wraps it up for now! I don't normally update very quickly, but the next chapter of this should be up within the next few days. That probably has to do with the fact that all I'm doing for this right now is editing and writing A/Ns. Hope to see you next chapter!


	2. Meet My Friends, the Femme Fatales

Okay, I lied. You'll have to go to the original story to see _I love Yuki SohMA's_ A/Ns after the first chapter. It made me confuzzled to read my opener, IlYS's opener, and then the story, then the two closer A/Ns. If you want to read the originals, I'll be happy to send you a link.

About the chapter name: A "Femme Fatale," by definition of Dictionary . com, is "an irresistably attractive woman, esp. one who leads men into difficult, dangerous, or disastrous situations; siren." Sam and Val are Danny's main love interests. Now, Val can be considered a femme fatale because in the show, she hunts ghosts for Vlad Masters, and has a super-grudge against Phantom, but Danny still likes her. Sam, however, was never Danny's official girlfriend in the show until PP, which is totally invalid and which I consider to have never happened. But it _is_ made clear to us that Danny likes her. I believe that, although she had more of a "Danny, come to your sense and stop being hypnotized" vibe in the show, this _is _FFN after all, and I can make her a femme fatale. SO HA! But yeah... She's still a good guy and this is still a DxS fic.

I've had this one written/edited for a few days now, but I wrote the ending while I was at school, where I can't access FFN. Then when I tried to send the document to my home email accounts, the school email messed my email up and the document didn't get sent, so I had to wait another day or two before I could send it home. So yeah. That's my excuse for not updating.

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

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~Danny's POV~

I came early to school today. _That_ was a big mistake. Although most of the people here seem to like me, a jock named Dash promised me that he'd shove me in a locker after school. But everyone else seems to be friendly enough. Yesterday, while we were waiting for the moving van to finally arrive, I met one of our next-door neighbors. His name is Tucker, and he's about my age. He helped us unload the moving van when it got there, and brought our stuff into the house for us. I think I've already started to feel like he's a part of the family.

After we'd unloaded everything, Mom and Dad let me and Jazz explore for a while. Jazz is old enough to drive, so they let her take the car. I had to walk if I wanted to go anywhere. Tucker took me to a fast food place, called the Nasty Burger. The name sounds awful, but with food as good as theirs, they can get away with it. The fries there are heavenly.

Back to today, and the events of the pre-bell madness that is teenagers.

I was walking down the hall, when I ran into something. I've been losing my focus on my surroundings lately. I looked down and saw a cloak of shimmering black hair that could only grace a head with flawless features. Both of us took a step back as the girl turned her head to me.

I couldn't help but stare at that beautiful girl. The hair that I'd viewed from above reached to her shoulders and was clipped up halfway in the front. Her lips sparkled slightly with violet-tinted lipgloss, and her eyes were a rare shade of amethyst. I could feel heat rush to my cheeks as my eyes momentarily flashed green in excitement.

"Sorry! …Hey, I haven't seen you here before. Are you new? My name's Sam Manson,"" she stuttered.

'_Sam Manson? Tucker talked about her for a whole 30 minutes yesterday!'_ I thought. I couldn't believe my eyes. The way he'd talked about her, I'd thought that she would be less attractive, and a whole lot more of a *DIE already, stupid* aura… To tell you the truth, I would have thought that if I'd run in to her like that, she would've said something along the lines of, "Stay outta my way, moron. Next time I'll put you in a coma."

I stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. I finally landed on something. "So I finally get to meet the infamous Sam. I'm Danny, Danny Fenton."

The two of us just stood there for a moment, staring at each other. Guess she'd heard something about me. I was so distracted by her that I failed to hear the footsteps approaching us, or see the bright red beret almost at our sides.

"Hey, Danny. Guess you've met Valerie and Sam already," Tucker said.

'_Wait, Valerie?' _I hadn't noticed the other girl until Tuck mentioned her. She wore yellow - a lot of it. She had dark skin and wavy, blackish-brown hair that went about halfway down her back. Tucker had talked about her, too. She'd been popular, and didn't pay much attention to Tucker and Sam, until early in their freshman year. That was when her dad had lost his job at the Axion security company, due to a ghost security dog… She'd had a serious grudge against anything even resembling ectoplasm with a shape. I had winced when he'd talked about that.

Yeah, this would be interesting. You see, I'm a halfa. What's a halfa, you ask? Well, it means I'm half of a human, and half of a ghost. No, a ghost is _not_ a _dead_ person. A ghost is a concentration of ectoplasmic energy that just so happens to have a personality. So, half of me is a normal human, and half of me is saturated with ectoplasm. Not complicated.

But that wasn't the only reason that this might be dangerous. No, I _clearly_ remembered that ghost security dog. It had just wanted a chew toy that had somehow made it into Axion Labs. But it sure caused a lot of problems. For example, Valerie hates _my_ ghostly guts, not the dog's. She blames me, thinking that the dog is mine. I did kind of adopt it after the whole thing was over, you know, to kind of teach it how to behave, but that incident was _not_ my fault. But I guess she's a "shoot first, ask questions never" kind of person, because not long after that some girl in red came after me, calling herself the "Red Huntress". I eventually caught her without her gear on, and found that it was Valerie. But I didn't know Valerie way back then. It looked like I was going to get to know her real good now.

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I'm too lazy to write much of an A/N right now, so just R&R, and if you have questions, I'll see if I can answer them without giving anything away. Audios, amigos! See you next chapter!


	3. And the Battle Begins

Hi peoples!

Dangit. I actually typed up/edited a lot of this chapter earlier, but when I got off the computer I was in a big hurry and didn't save it. :/ So yeah. I'm very happy that I'm actually getting around to doing this. For once, I'm actually DOING SOMETHING of my own free will that needs doing, and I'm not procrastinating for like, EVER. But yeah. I think you get the point.

Omigosh, I'm really sorry, but I HAVE to brag about this. I am so very, very happy right now, because I got my first very own cell phone for Christmas and I've been typing up a new story on it in my spare time. I'd like to get it finished on either my phone or my computer before I actually post it on FFN though, so if you want to read it, you'll have to wait a while. But I will tell you that it was inspired by **aem82's** _Abby's Story_.

Okay I'm done rambling now. Read the chapter.

Wait, I forgot something. I don't own Danny Phantom. YET. And I do not own Cheetos or anything else mentioned in this chapter that I don't own. NOW you can go read the chapter.

Chapter 3: And the Battle Begins

**~Normal POV**~

"Hey! Give me back my Cheetos!"

The former trio, now a quartet, sat at their normal (or for Danny, new) lunch table. Tucker had just stolen a bag of Cheetos from Valerie's lunch tray. Unfortunately for him, ghosthunting had really improved Val's vision and attention to detail. She, of course, had caught him.

"Never!" he said, a grin on his face.

Meanwhile, Sam and Danny were sitting across from each other and seemed to be having a staring contest. Only they were blinking. At least, _Sam_ was blinking. Danny, on the other hand, was not. Now because we're not going to go into their POVs, we're going to have to assume that Danny was trying to figure out how Sam's eyes could be purple, and that Sam was trying to figure out why Danny didn't have to blink. If we were not assuming that, this story might get _way_ too mushy _way _too early in the story. And we can't have _that_, now can we? No, we can't. Now let's get on with it.

"Those are _my_ Cheetos!" Valerie yelled. Of course, the cafeteria was much too loud for anyone to hear – or care about, for that matter – an unpopular girl's yell, so no one paid attention to the yelling going on at our quartet's table.

"They're mine now! Mwahahahahahahahaha!" Tucker laughed manically.

"Where's the ghost?" Danny yelled, snapped out of his daze by Tucker's laugh. He glanced around the room suspiciously. "I know you're there! Show yourself!"

Tucker, Valerie, and Sam just stared at Danny's sudden outburst. Tucker was the first to speak.

"Dude, is something wrong with you? There's no such thing as ghosts, and even if there were, why would one be _here_?" Tucker asked. Danny's head whipped around to face Tucker with an expression of bewilderment.

"Didn't you hear that laugh? I've only heard one person laugh like that in my life, and it was a ghost! Wait, if there's a ghost here…" He frowned. "Hm… If there's a ghost, why didn't…" His voice faded off into a look of confusion.

"Danny, are you okay? Tucker's right. There's no such thing as ghosts," Sam broke into his thoughts.

He shook his head. "No, you're wrong. Ghosts are real, and they _are_ a threat. I should know. My parents are ghosthunters."

The other three looked at him curiously. "Explain," Val demanded.

Then the bell rang. Danny let out a quick sigh of relief.

"Hey, let's go to the Nasty Burger after school," Tucker suggested. "Then Danny can do some explaining."

"Um, sure!" Danny agreed nervously. Sam and Valerie simply nodded their approval.

"We'll meet up at Sam's locker after school, and walk to the Nasty Burger together," Tuck clarified. The moment he finished speaking, the quartet rushed off, each to their respective class.

**~The day dragged on. It seemed like days from lunchtime to the end-of-school bell. When school finally got out, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie were by Sam's locker, waiting for Danny to get there.~**

"So... What do you think of Danny?" Tucker asked. It was clear he was talking to Sam, though he didn't specifically say it.

"So far, I think he's a carnivore, he's shy, and he has a bruise just above his left eye, right about here," Sam said, pointing to a place near her eyebrow. _'And he's cute, although I'd never admit it out loud.'_

"He's pretty nice, and he's _hot_," Val joked.

"Okay, whatever, didn't need to know that."

**~Nasty Burger – Danny's POV~**

After we got our food, we sat down in the same booth I'd been in with Tuck the night before. Did they always sit in the same place? Sam and I sat in one side of the booth, with Tucker and Val on the other side.

"Okay, Danny, start talking," Sam commanded. I groaned mentally. Why was there never a ghost attack when I needed one? These questions would _not_ be fun to answer.

"Well," I sighed, "back in Eerie Haunts – that's the town I used to live in – there's this lake. Lake Eerie, with two e's. It's green, and everything around it is dead. That's because it's by a waterfall, and behind the falls is a portal to the Ghost Zone. Ghosts live in the Ghost Zone, obviously, and they can come to our dimension through portals. It works both ways. They wreaked a lot of havoc back in the Haunts. My parents are scientists, inventors, and ghosthunters. They invent weapons to fight ghosts, they study ghosts, and they hunt ghosts. As their son, I feel that it's only fair I'm allowed a little ghost-centered paranoia."

My three new friends sat back as they processed the information. Watching them, I saw thoughtfulness on Sam's face; Tucker had a blank look on his; and Val… Didn't look surprised, which didn't surprise me. After al, she was a ghosthunter herself, not that the other two knew about her rather dangerous hobby. We're teenagers. you think we're going to tell our friends we hunt ghosts on a daily basis? _No!_ We're not! Think about it a second. It would be kind of awkward. 'Hey, Danny, what did you do last night?' 'Oh, not much, just battled with Skulker for a few hours until I finally manage to stuff him in the Thermos. Then I flew around for 20 minutes chasing the Box Ghost. You?' I don't think so.

Now that I'm done ranting, let's get back to my new friends. Tucker and Sam had finished thinking (or in Tucker's case, _not_ thinking?) and all three were now looking at me expectantly. "Anything else we might wanna know, smart one?" Sam asked.

I thought for a moment, then nodded. Might as well tell them just what they're in for. "The portal in the Haunts isn't the only one around," I said. "There's also my parents' portal. A lot of ghosts come out through there, too." The group deadpanned simultaneously. "Wait a sec!" I protested. "There _are _good ghosts and one of them kind of travels to whatever city the Fenton Portal is in. His name is Danny Phantom, and he protects people from evil ghosts. I'd bet my life that he's here in Amity, hanging around and waiting for a ghost to fight!"

Valerie scoffed. "Yeah, right," she argued. "There are _no_ good ghosts, especially that Phantom punk. It's his fault my dad lost his job!"

"I thought you said it was a ghost dog that made your dad lose his job," Tuck said, confused.

"It was Phantom's dog!"

"You only assumed that!" I said, my voice a little louder than normal. Better tone it down a little. "He was trying to get that dog to go back into the Ghost Zone. And the dog just wanted its chew toy, anyway."

"How would _you_ know that?" Valerie asked suspiciously. _'Think, Fenton, think! What'll she believe?'_

Suddenly I felt a cold chill rise through the back of my throat and exit through my mouth in the form of a blue mist. _My ghost sense! Yes!_

"I've gotta use the restroom," I said quickly. That was believable. I used it all the time. "I'll be right back."

I ran off to the bathrooms and, with my signature yell of _"Going Ghost!"_ let one blue ring wash over the top half of my body, while another washed over my bottom half.

I now wore a silvery-white glove on each hand, a black jumpsuit, silvery-white boots, and a silvery-white belt. My hair was snow-white, and my eyes glowed luminescent, electric green. Right now, they were a bit brighter than usual, because I was feeling mischievous and happy. The almost-a-smirk grin on my face enforced the mood.

_I am Danny Phantom!_

**~Nasty Burger – Sam's POV~**

"_Suspicious_, Valerie is _suspicious_!" Tucker chimed. He was right. The look on Val's face _clearly_ showed her slight suspicion of this new character that had been thrust into our lives. I didn't blame her – why _had_ he just run off like that? Definitely weird. I wouldn't have believed for a second that he was really going to the bathroom if I hadn't seen him open the door and go in with my own two eyes.

We all looked outside as we heard a motorcycle revving up.

The three of us gave a unanimous cry of "_Whoa…!_"

The rider was _glowing_! Was he a _ghost_, like Danny had described? I sure hoped Danny was right about Phantom. If he was, we could be in for a_ lot_ of trouble. Oh, the ghost guy was talking now.

"Where are you, punk?" he yelled. So far it sounded like Danny had been telling the truth about Phantom.

"Yo, Johnny! Up here, old man!" The cry, of course, came from above. Unfortunately, a birhgt green blastoff light blocked the speaker from view. I took this as a good sign tha Phantom had arrived on the scene.

I suddenly felt a cold blast of air. Oh. Tucker had thought to open the window. I wasn't sure if that was stupid or smart.

"Phan-tom! Phan-tom!" we shouted. Well, Tucker and I did. I think Val might have been trying to boo him, but it wasn't working very well. Our "Phan-tom!" cheer had aught on. Everyone else was yelling with us, and her voice just faded in. She eventually gave up and just started cheering with the rest of us.

When the green light ended, making contact with Johnny's skin, we finally saw the ghost boy. He wore a black jumpsuit and silvery-white gloves and boots that perfectly complemented his snow-white hair and glowing green eyes. His emerald orbs were so… _Magical_.

Tucker's voice suddenly broke into my thoughts. "Uh, Sam? Your eyes are sparkling…"

I blinked. My eyes _never_ sparkled. Like, N-E-V-E-R. So why were they doing it now? Maybe they were reflecting Phantom's eyes… Oh, okay. _Maybe_ I was really that excited, not that I'd ever say it out loud. So what? He was _hot_, and I only use _that_ word in extreme circumstances.

It was a pretty cool fight, I admit. Phantom and Johnny threw those blasts of green light at each other, and the way they dodged, it was like they were dancing. Phantom's moves were graceful, while his opponent seemed to have a kind of jagged rhythm. And when they started flying – or when Johnny started flying, on his motorcycle! – they would go straight up, or dive, or do loop-the-loops, and Phantom even did spirals! It was obvious they'd done this before.

Just when it seemed that the battle was coming to a close, Johnny suddenly swooped over to where we were sitting… And swung me through the window as he flew up something-hundred feet above the ground! I screamed. Who wouldn't?

"Hey, _punk_, you gonna come save the _human_?" he sneered.

What happened next was slightly creepy. Phantom's eyes grew a dark shade of toxic green, and his grin became a death glare. "Put. Her. Down," he said. His voice had become threatening, instead of the lighthearted tone he'd used earlier.

"Sure thing, _kid_," my captor said. Wait, he was going to let me go? Since when was_ that_ in the evil-villain rulebook?

Johnny answered my unspoken question quickly. He_ dropped_ me. I should have _known_ he'd do that! It was one of the oldest tricks in the book!

If I'd been screaming bloody murder before, it was full-out blood-and-guts destruction now. Through my screams, I could hear various cries of "_Sam!_" coming from my friends. Well, except for Danny. He must have still been in the bathroom.

Y'know, it was weird. My life didn't flash before my eyes on the way down – I was too busy trying to curl up in a position where my head wouldn't make impact with the ground so I could maybe escape with my life. He'd dropped me from pretty high up.

Then I heard it. I knew I was going to die, because my ears were playing tricks on me now. I was panicking. That's all.

But I wasn't just panicking. His voice, that beautiful, wonderful, soft, melodic voice was real. The one word it yelled ripped me out of my terrified thoughts of death.

"_Sam!"_

~CLIFFFFFFFHANGER, HANGING FROM A CLIIIIIIFFFFF!

AND THAT'S WHY HE'S CALLED CLIFF-HANGER!~

Cookies to people who know where that's from!

Man, did I have fun with _this_ chapter. The original was a lot different, but I'm going in the same direction… I think. I typed up the entire chapter on the Notepad feature of my NEW cell phone. More bragging from me. XD

MS Word is mad at me right now. There's a lot of green lines hanging around on my screen… Oh well, who cares? R&R for poor Sam!

Viki

P.S. Speaking of R&Rs, this story is getting more reviews than _my_ story that _I'm_ writing the original version of. Kind of sad that my adopted story is getting more attention than _my_ little baby is. I'll live with it.


	4. And the Winner Is

GAH I AM SO SORRY. I haven't updated this story in forever. And to my BTL readers, yes, I am taking a break, but I knew I had this chapter almost completely written and I figured I'd finish it and post it. And Ch 6 of BTL is in the makings!

I guess I kinda left you guys on a huge cliffy, didn't I. Well, read to find out what happens, even though some of you already know.

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My eyes locked onto Sam's fragile, falling form just as her scream pierced my sensitive ears. I didn't think about what I was dong next. My body was set on autopilot.

"_Sam!_" I yelled as I darted towards her. I flew straight and swift like an arrow*, catching her moments before she crashed to her painful, bloody death. We were still about twenty feet off the ground.

"Hey, Sam, you okay?" I asked gently. She'd curled into a fetal position, so I'd caught her bridal style. Her eyes were still clenched shut until she heard my soft inquiry.

"…Phantom?" she murmured quietly. "I'm… alive?"

"Yeah," I answered as I floated us the remaining distance to the ground. "I'm gonna set you down here and then I'm gonna go finish this up. Danny'll get out here to help you as soon as he can, okay?"

"Okay," she said, still a little dazed. "Hey, who's that?" She was pointing behind me, where a redhead was holding a charged ectoblaster. I smiled.

"That would be Jazz Fenton, Danny's sister. I think I'll leave this to her," I said. I took Sam back to her window and phased her into the booth. Then I went invisible and flew to the restroom to turn into Fenton.

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**~Sam's POV – Nasty Burger~**

It took me a minute to realize that I was back in the booth with Tucker and Val. By the time I was actually responsive, Danny was back in the booth as well. I realized that he was shaking me, saying my name, trying to get me to hear him. He looked concerned.

"Danny, stop shaking me. I'm fine," I told him. He raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Don't be too sure about that," he retorted. "He's bleeding pretty badly, and some of his ectoplasm might have gotten on you. If it stays in contact with your skin too long, it'll contaminate your bloodstream – and believe me, you don't want that. It burns like heck. I should know. Now, what did I do with that ectoplasm-resistant rag…?" He started digging in his backpack.

I turned away from him for a second to look at Tuck and Valerie and check on the action outside. Tucker was trying to decide whether he was relieved or confused, and Valerie was dying to say something. The only thing keeping her mouth shut was the fact that Danny was focusing on helping me and she didn't want to distract him. Outside, the new girl – Jazz, I think Phantom called her – was shooting Johnny to a pulp. Her blaster fired green rays at him, the kind Phantom shot from his hands. She had him hovering I one spot in the air, and she was fumbling with something on her belt. She suddenly stopped, and triumphantly held up… a _thermos_?

It seemed pretty lame to me, but Johnny backed up – well, he at least _tried_. Jazz aimed the opening towards the ghost, pressed a button on the side of the thermos, and a bright blue blast shot at Johnny, sucking him in. One second he was there, the next he was in the thermos. I'd have to ask Danny about that.

Speaking of Danny, I felt something patting my arm. Not a hand – it was cloth. Danny had found his rag and was patting down a spot on my arm where some he'd seen some 'ectoplasm', whatever that was. The way he talked about it made it sound like a cross between blood and acid.

We were all silent while we waited for him to finish. When he looked satisfied, Valerie started bombarding him with questions.

"How do you know all that? Is there a reason you know so much about ectoplasm? How did you even know about that ghost grabbing Sam? Why was that ghost here?" she demanded. He sighed.

"Listen, Val, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. In order, my parents are ghosthunters, my parents are ghosthunters, Phantom let me know, and he was after Phantom. Okay?" Danny said. I felt kinda sorry for him. He was just trying to help me out, and Valerie had to get all suspicious.

Valerie wasn't satisfied yet. "So, you're all buddy-buddy with that punk?"

"Careful. You're gonna start sounding like a ghost," he joked. She glared at him. "Okay, okay. We've worked together a couple of times to help people, and I get my parents' inventions for him all the time. Don't tell them, okay? They think he's evil and try to kill him."

Ouch. Poor Phantom. The guy had to be so… _Angsty_. I briefly wondered if he had any friends, other than Danny. _'Of course he does,'_ I thought. _'I mean, he must be friends with Jazz, right? And he probably has ghost friends.'_

Valerie was smirking."They've got the right idea," she declared. "Anyone who doesn't like Phantom is a sure friend of mine."

"Well, I guess we can't be friends then," Danny retorted.

"Guys, guys," I raised my hands in the universal 'surrender' gesture. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Just be friends and accept that you have different views about Phantom, okay? Try to get along. Do it for me and Tucker."

They glared at each other before looking at me simultaneously.

"Fine."

"If I have to, I guess."

"Good. Now that that's all settled, I have a question for you, Danny. That thermos your sister used to get rid of the ghost – what was up with that?"

Danny looked relieved. It must have been the fact that I was the one doing the asking and not Valerie. She had kind of attacked him with her questions, while I was just curious.

"That was a Fenton Thermos, one of my parents' inventions. It was made to capture and temporarily contain ghosts. Phantom likes to use them, too. He and Jazz and I all carry them around, 'cause ghosts tend to be _everywhere_."

"So, if ghosts are everywhere, could there be one here right now? Or was that our ghost for the day?" Tucker asked. He was probably trying to make a joke, but it made me wonder. Could there be a ghost here, eating a snack in one o the other booths, or would they stand out too much?

Danny chuckled. "Well, I'm sure Phantom is hanging around the area," he told us. "But other than him, no. I'd be able to tell you if a ghost was around, and if there were any here before, they probably fled after Johnny's attack. But yeah, usually there's only one ghost every hour or so," he said offhandedly.

_Only_ one ghost an hour? We'd never even had one per _week_ in Amity Park before! I looked at my watch. How much time did we have left before another ghost probably attacked? When I saw the time, I winced. I completely forgot about the ghosts. I'd told my parents I'd be home by 4 o'clock, and it was already 4:20. They'd be worried sick – or as mad as ghosts.

"I gotta get home," I told my friends. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Mind if I tag along?" Danny surprised me by asking.

I nodded. "Sure, but why…?"

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I don't really want to listen to my parents fuming about Phantom 'following' us here…" He shrugged. "So long as I'm home by ten and text them where I am, they don't mind if I go somewhere after school."

I nodded. "Good enough for me. Besides, it'll be fun to see the look on my parents' faces when I bring home a boy who's _not_ swimming in money."

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**~Danny's POV – Nasty Burger~**

Okay, I guess it was kind of rude, but I looked at Sam like she'd just asked for a unicorn for Christmas. "Um… Wha?"

Tucker and Valerie laughed. "Dude, Sam's dad is the CEO of Manson's," Tuck spilled.

_Sam's dad_ was the _CEO_ of _Manson's?_ She had to be almost as rich as Vlad Masters himself! Manson's was the biggest department store in America, and only people with money like Vlad's shopped there!

"Yeah, and my parents are preppier than Paulina, so they expect me to wear pink dresses and marry some rich dude at an Ivy League school who'll take over the business when my dad retires." Sam shuddered at the thought. "And, of course, I'm never going to _touch_ a pink dress, and I'll probably end up with a guy who spends all day in a metal shop or something – that is, _if_ I get married. Anyways, now that you know the big secret, we should probably get going."

* * *

Well, that's Chapter 4! Now, go watch "Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows" on YouTube, while I get ready for _my_ school dance tonight.

Viki


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